A feisty short red headed lawyer walked into my office one day and demanded I show her property. I laughed in her face. First of all I already had clients I was expecting in a hour. Secondly, that's not how this works, ma'am. So she appropriately asked for an appointment and let me know what she was looking for in a home. I would have never guessed that she would become one of my very best friends.... this was in 1997.
The day she made the offer (the second time she saw the Bluegill house) I met her at the house to sign the contract and get the earnest money. She brought $5,000 cash to a 6 pm meeting. I brought my daughter who was 9 at the time. Mary asked my daughter who was behaving well "how old are you?" Abigail answered "I'm fixin to be 10" Mary who was from Buffalo, NY looked at me and said "what the F#*k did she say?"
Over the next 24 years she would still occasionally call me and ask me to explain in the king's English was some southerner had said to her. She and her husband became awesome friends to me. When she first met my husband she instantly loved him too.... that was in November of 2000. After Donald and I got married in 2002 she and I took turns hosting lunch once a month and spending the afternoon playing cards. Mary and Max literally became part of my family.
As time passed Max's health began to decline and in 2013 she came to me and asked if I would be their executor for their wills. I accepted the responsibility to do that. In 2014 when the 3 level lake house became too much for them they moved to a 1 level gated community patio home which she lovingly referred to as a hobbit house. And we marketed and sold her first lake home in 2015.
Mary called me on the phone every single day. When she didn't call me on the 21st of October 2021 I knew something was wrong. Mary had passed away and literally done the thing she had always said she was going to do... died and left me her husband. By 2021 Max's dementia was pretty advanced. I got him into a member care facility (with a lot of help from his primary care physician's office and my daughter) and I took care of him (his bills, his dr. and dentist appointments) until ultimately he passed in February of 2024. Today Mary and Max's urns are down the hall from me. I have "instructions", I'm just not ready yet.
Sometimes I still go back and read old emails. I miss her every single day. When I started in this business in 1992 I knew I was a people person, but I didn't yet know that someone who marched in my office making demands would become family to me. Mary passed at 71 years of age and Max at 89. I also didn't know that Max was my practice for my dad getting dementia. But I can certainly tell you, that I am far better prepared for my daddy's progression than if Max had not been in my life.
Mary and Max weren't just a real estate transaction. They were life altering friends that walked into my life. I cook better because I tried to out cook her on our monthly lunches. Max had a stroke at my house and I learned from that. Mary was a retired attorney will an up to date bar card who helped me many times and would never take more than a dollar so I could legally say I'd "retained" her as my legal council. My heart is heavy in writing this post and I have tears in my eyes. But in the end I'm so happy for the joy we shared. The shared vacations, the lunches, the long phone calls, theater outings, boat outings... And she loved my child. She loved my grandchildren and I'm glad she was still here when they were born.
The photo is of her and Max and Abigail and Matt from the wedding in 2017. Max had a good day that day. One day soon I'll have to tell you the "getting stopped for speeding" story... mine and Mary's... but not today. I've got to get a tissue and get back to work.
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